In case you were wondering, dollars for lobbying pays off — well, duh!
Kill Bill
By THOMAS B. EDSALL NYT
United Republic, a liberal-leaning campaign finance reform organization dedicated to reducing the influence of money in American politics, recently produced a striking graphic that illustrates how corporate America wins huge breaks from Congress at very little cost.
According to statistics United Republic assembled, the prescription drug industry spent $116 million lobbying for legislation to prevent Medicare from bargaining down drug prices — legislation that enabled drug companies to make an additional $90 billion annually. That amounts to an extraordinary 77,500 percent return on investment. Oil companies, in turn, had a return on investment of 5,900 percent, and multinational companies, 22,000 percent.
While the general public may be angered by these reports, the lobbying industry loves them: what could be better publicity for attracting new clients? For example, the Carmen Group, a Washington lobbying firm, boasted on its Web site that for every dollar it collected in fees, clients got $100 in benefits.
Many studies demonstrate the profitability of lobbying. A Sunlight Foundation analysis of 200 corporations found that companies investing heavily in lobbying paid lower tax federal rates. According to Sunlight, seven of the eight companies that invested the most in lobbying between 2007 and 2009 (Figure 2) saw their tax rates lowered, and six of the eight saw rate declines of at least seven percentage points. In contrast, the median tax rate decline among all 200 companies was 0.6 percentage points:
(More here.)
By THOMAS B. EDSALL NYT
United Republic, a liberal-leaning campaign finance reform organization dedicated to reducing the influence of money in American politics, recently produced a striking graphic that illustrates how corporate America wins huge breaks from Congress at very little cost.
According to statistics United Republic assembled, the prescription drug industry spent $116 million lobbying for legislation to prevent Medicare from bargaining down drug prices — legislation that enabled drug companies to make an additional $90 billion annually. That amounts to an extraordinary 77,500 percent return on investment. Oil companies, in turn, had a return on investment of 5,900 percent, and multinational companies, 22,000 percent.
While the general public may be angered by these reports, the lobbying industry loves them: what could be better publicity for attracting new clients? For example, the Carmen Group, a Washington lobbying firm, boasted on its Web site that for every dollar it collected in fees, clients got $100 in benefits.
Many studies demonstrate the profitability of lobbying. A Sunlight Foundation analysis of 200 corporations found that companies investing heavily in lobbying paid lower tax federal rates. According to Sunlight, seven of the eight companies that invested the most in lobbying between 2007 and 2009 (Figure 2) saw their tax rates lowered, and six of the eight saw rate declines of at least seven percentage points. In contrast, the median tax rate decline among all 200 companies was 0.6 percentage points:
(More here.)
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